Hume

This name, with variant spellings Hulme(s), Home and Holmes is of dual origin - English and Scottish. English namebearers hail from any of the several places in Lancashire, Cheshire and Staffordshire called Hulme. The name derives from the Olde Danish "hulm" or the Olde Norse "holmr" meaning a small island or piece of flat land surrounded by streams. These islets were used as bases by the Vikings when raiding adjacent coasts. In England, the surname was first recorded in the latter half of the 12th Century, (see below). One, Geoffrey de Hulm appeared in the 1202 "Pipe Rolls of Lancashire", and a John de Hulm, witness, in the "Assize Court Rolls of Lancashire", dated 1260. In Scotland the name is of territorial origin from the lands of Home in Berwickshire, spelled Hume in early records. One Alexander de Hume witnesses a Charter of the lands of Drumgrey in 1408 and in 1451 another Alexander Hume was a "Conservator of the truce between Scotland and England". The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Turstinus de Hulmo, which was dated 1169 - The Pipe Rolls of Huntingdonshire, during the reign of King Henry II, The Builder of Churches, 1154 - 1189. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.